Change or Decay: Russia’s Dilemma and the West’s Response

October 31, 2011

News/Press Releases

Summary: The world is still coping with the consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Two decades later, the West has yet to adjust to the post-Soviet reality and Russia has not settled on its relationship with the rest of the world.

The world is still coping with the consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Two decades later, the West has yet to adjust to the post-Soviet reality and Russia has not settled on its relationship with the rest of the world.

In Change or Decay, Lilia Shevtsova and Andrew Wood, two of the most respected scholars on Russia, analyze how relations are shifting between Russia and the world. In a series of lively and candid conversations, Shevtsova and Wood discuss how the Russia of Putin and Medvedev emerged from the ashes of the Soviet Union and the trajectory of Russia’s relations with the West.

“This book attacks the widely held myths and illusions that have for so long governed both the evolution of Russia and the ideas of Russia held by the outside world. It’s a lively book made still better by flashes of humor. You may agree with it, or dispute it. You may like some of it, and hate the rest. But read it.”

–Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and president of the Gorbachev Foundation

About the Authors

Lilia Shevtsova is a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center, where she chairs the Russian Domestic Politics and Political Institutions Program. She is also an associate fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). Shevtsova is the author of Yeltsin’s Russia: Myths and Reality; Putin’s Russia; Russia: Lost in Translation; and Lonely Power.

Andrew Wood is an associate fellow at Chatham House and a consultant to a number of companies with an interest in Russia. He was British ambassador to Russia from 1995 to 2000.